After speaking to the man at the front of the store, we were ushered down to the cellar with barrels of wine, beer, and other alcohol lined up on either side of the walls. We went past it, up until we found a group of men gathered around some open crates with stacks of crushed leaves poking out the top.
I cocked my head, but did not say anything. That was not the enuim— it was probably some other drug, considering the enuim was not a naturally grown substance. Plus, adding to the fact that Jack, Lisa, and Ginah’s Crew were literally against the Elise because of their selling of the enuim and its dangerous effects, I felt like I could safely assume that whatever this drug was, it was not detrimental to one’s entire life.
Hopefully.
Thankfully, I did not need to talk since I was supposed to just act like a bodyguard; a man broke off from his conversation as he saw Lisa approach. He was probably the boss of the group. Spreading his arms wide open, he warmly welcomed the young woman.
"Lisa," he said, a smile spread across his rough and weary face. "It’s good to see you! I haven’t seen you in almost a month."
"It has only been two weeks," she replied, reciprocating his demeanour. "But I’m glad to see you too."
Jack scowled as the man brought her into a hug; for a moment during their embrace, I could see Lisa’s facade slip as her body tensed, but she was back to normal in an instant.
The man stepped back, giving her a curt nod. "I’m sorry I haven’t been able to support you more, but you know how it is with the Elise, right?"
Lisa just waved a hand nonchalantly. "Right, right," she said, glancing back at us. I took a deep breath, knowing what she had to say next. She turned back to the man. "Well, that won’t be a problem anymore."
"What do you mean?" he asked.
Lisa gave him an obviously fake smile. "We were, uh, coerced into joining the Elise."
And there it was. That was the lie we had concocted when we were planning this; Jack and Lisa were going to twist the truth and pretend that the Elise were successful in recruiting them by force while they were at sea. They would not have let word leak out that they failed in doing so, so we were going to use it to our advantage.
The man paused, as Lisa let him take in the implication of her words slowly Then his brows snapped together, as he clenched his fist. "They forced you to join them? Those bastards!"
The young woman hurriedly put her hand up, trying to calm him down. "It’s fine! They didn’t… hurt us or anything. We just exchanged some… words, and Jack and I decided it was in our best interest to stop being so stubborn and just help them out like everybody else."
He relaxed slightly, hearing that. "That’s good," he said, placing an arm around Lisa’s shoulder. She stiffened, but kept quiet once again. "I don’t care about Jack. But as long as you’re fine."
"And we’ll be fine as long as we have our bodyguards with us. You know—"
"Is that a Goblin?" the man cut her off, glancing at me. He took his arm off Lisa as he frowned, looking me over. "I think that’s a Goblin, right John?"
A man behind him voiced his agreement as he slowly reached for a weapon on his belt. I tensed, but Jack stepped in front of me, putting a hand out.
"So what if she is?" he asked, resting a hand on the hilt of one of his blades.
"We don’t like their kind here," the man spat back. "The last group of Goblins we met killed Kenny— those bastards. Robbed us of our goods. Why in Hell would you be working with Goblins?"
"If you’ve got a problem with her, that’s too bad for you," Jack said, voice uncaring. "You’ll just have to deal with it."
My eyes darted between the two men: it was obvious from the start that neither liked each other. I wasn’t sure of the specifics about their relationship, but it probably had something to do with them being ‘tough men’ in front of a pretty, young woman like Lisa. That meant Jack came to my defense not to defuse the situation, but to agitate the man.
And it appeared that they were both getting dangerously close to starting a fight. Kai looked like he was about to intervene, but held back by the glares coming from the group of men backing up their boss. Taking a deep breath, I opened my mouth to speak.
"I’m with the Elise." I received a few confused looks from both our guys and their guys, before realizing I stupidly repeated what Lisa had said. I hurriedly added, "Bahr sent for me directly— from the Dark Crusaders."
Lisa immediately picked up on what I was doing, and followed up on what I said. "That’s right. She’s a Dark Crusader."
The man hesitated, as his men exchanged a few glances at his back. "So what?" he asked. "That doesn’t change that she’s a Goblin bastard."
"It means," Lisa started, wagging a finger, "if you attack her, you’d be making an enemy of not just the Elise, but the Dark Crusaders too."
He still looked uncertain, although his men had fully backed down at this point. Lisa placed a hand lightly on his shoulder.
"I know you’re tense because of your own personal issues with Goblins, but it’s not worth it. Come on, I need your help and I would be greatly
